Skywatchers set for meteor shower

hoggy

starwatchers set for meteor shower

The Perseids occur when the Earth passes through dusty cometary debris
stargazers are getting ready to watch the annual Perseid meteor shower, which peaks on Wednesday.

The Perseid shower occurs when the Earth passes through a stream of dusty debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle.

As this cometary "grit" strikes our atmosphere, it burns up, often creating streaks of light across the sky.

This impressive spectacle appears to originate from a point called a "radiant" in the constellation of Perseus - hence the name Perseid.

"Earth passes through the densest part of the debris stream sometime on 12 August. Then, you could see dozens of meteors per hour," said Bill Cooke of Nasa's meteoroid environment office.

No special equipment is required to watch the sky show. Astronomers say binoculars might help, but will also restrict the view to a small part of the sky.

The Perseids can appear in any part of the sky, but their tails all point back to the radiant in the constellation Perseus.

In the UK, the best times to see the Perseids are likely to be on the morning of 12 August before dawn and from late evening on the 12th through to the early hours of the 13 August.

This year, light from the last quarter Moon will interfere significantly with the view.

The rock and dust fragments which cause the shower were left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle when it last came near the Sun.

The comet orbits the Sun once every 130 years and last swept through the inner Solar System in 1992.

Turok

hello!
does ,this meteor shower,has something to do,with the sun eclipse,last week in indian ocean region?
when i was a child,all say to me,when you see a shooting star,you can wish something,and that wish,will be become true!

compufunk

I cant see how the two things could be related.

Lets hope for clear skies .

futumsch

This shower has not much to do with the Solar eclipse the other week. As Hoggy put in his report, the Perseid meteor shower occurs when the earth passes through the trail of dust left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. The Perseid meteor shower occurs every year more or less at the same date.

A more popular meteor shower in recent years is the Leonids, around 18th of November, which are caused when the earth passes through the trail of dust left behind by Comet Tempel-Tuttle which passed earths orbit in 1999. This caused a magnificent meteor 'Storm' on the morning of November 18th 1999. As this particular comet orbits the Sun every 33 years along the same path, the earth passes through different dust paths left from previous orbits of the comet. And its the same for many of the other meteor showers throughout the year.

Turok

Hello!
will this event also happens,in asia,normaly it should,because,the continent,ist on the same earth half then europe,and have also the same moon calendar!

hoggy

If you're going to do it lying on your back, you need to know where to look.
The "W" of Cassiopeia is usually easy to spot.

Attached Images

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Channel Hopper

Lovely sky last night but not a lot happening from midnight to 2am round here


Bit overcast tonight though.

There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

Analoguesat

Just been outside for a look. Nothing seen at all aprt from lots of bats!

Analoguesat's message to the world Analogue forever!

hoggy

at least you have seen something all i can see is clouds lots of them

Huevos

There's not going to be anything to see with the moon where it is. Anyway you need to wait a while, you're not even on the leading face of the planet until after 1am BST. After that you are moving forward into space at 18 kilometres a second.

PaulR

Well down here in the south of France I've just come in from half an hour of meteorite watching.

We're lucky that there's very little light pollution out here in the countryside so we've been able to see quite a few shooting stars and one fireball. They've now noticeably slowed down in frequency and the moon is starting to rise so it was a good time to come in.

Sorry to sound so smug about it - hell no, I'm not sorry at all!

PaulR As I get older I find myself thinking about the hereafter - I go into a room and then wonder what I'm here after.

PaulR

Yes but when was the highest concentration?

According to the news last night the best times for the UK was early this morning before sunrise and just after sunset this evening. This surely implies that the peak was during the daytime for the UK and that countries on the other side of the planet had the best view of all.

PaulR As I get older I find myself thinking about the hereafter - I go into a room and then wonder what I'm here after.

Analoguesat

Yah been outside again - a couple of bright ones and half a dozen faint ones

Plus one unidentified satellite heading southeast

Gave up when the moon rose from behind the hill though.

Analoguesat's message to the world Analogue forever!

Channel Hopper

Been up on the roof in the past ten minutes and still too cloudy to make any viewings likely.

There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

tomthebomb1968

Just seen 3 in a minute in the back garden, so off to a resovoir up in the hills for a couple of hours viewing

compufunk

Theres too much cloud cover here to see much at the minute, I only got a glimpse of one decent one through a gap.

tomthebomb1968

Just back now. Saw about 35 in total, 5 or 6 really good ones b4 the clouds came over. And now Im back home its pretty clear again. Sods law! Had to get the kids to bed though. Up early to see the tall ships coming up Belfast Lough

2cvbloke

Stupid streetlights, I couldn't see a thing!!! By the time I can get out of the lights along the canal, it would be daylight...

So much for the light pollution solutions of years gone by....

Turok

Hello!
i also watch to hours into the sky.beginning from 23 cet to 1h ,and nothing happens here
maybe the area you see something,is very small!

Huevos

They can appear anywhere in the sky, it's just that if you drew a line backwards along their trail they all appear to come from one point in the sky. This is how you tell the difference between a sporadic and a meteor that is part of the shower.